Kicking a ball about

This weeks entry is almost a run on of last Friday's where a few things delayed have arrived connected to soccer .

Roy of the Rovers is something as a boy I grew up with, the story of one Roy Race of Melchester Rovers who became a player manager that started out in the Tiger comic which went through a number of changes and was later spun off into a comic in its own right.

Some of the comic strips have been republished in compilations for those who had parents who removed 'old' comics back in the day but loved the stories about the game on and off the field.

Roy has been rebooted to use a modern expression for this century having before made the odd appearance in the Match of the Day BBC tie magazine of the football show and more recently in the better adult soccer magazine When Saturday Comes.

He's currently enjoying a renaissance with featured comic stories in Kickaround (see later) and also in a number of new stories.

Kick off is the first of three projected graphic novels featuring our hero being published in November of 2018 with two more in March and June respectively by Rob Williams writing and Ben Willsher illustrating that start with Melchester Rovers languishing in bottom of League Two where a sixteen year old Roy Race who has natural talent and powerful left foot dreams of playing for them.

What are the odds Roy can push his way into the Rovers first team, bringing back the glory days of the past or will the on and off pitch pressures prove too much for this young prospect?
This is where the new Saga begins and for this boy it's everything I've been looking forward to,  a real boys gripping adventure.

The last time I mentioned Kickaround would of been November 2nd where I wrote about it, the shortage of any kind of soccer/association football comic/magazine of the sort I had when I was younger such as the comic Roy of the Rovers that was spun off from Tiger that as boys we devoured

There have been a few changes because of production based issues that feed in distribution meant we missed what would of been February's edition and as well anyone who have visited their local newsagent will of observed the fierce battle for rack space with lots of new magazines  plus part works vying for the slots which is ironic in age of downloaded  media.
The publishers  have decided to minimize any issues with deadlines and to avoid battles with cheap plastic tat festooned competitors like MOTD that just have pictures and a few lines of text, to make it subscription only with copies arriving in the post to your letter box.
This also means they can put more time and effort into that content setting a clear bar between them and other football based magazines not least the shortage of anything for junior aged readers that is really suitable.
As someone whose reading age is lowish with learning disabilities, I appreciate something with plenty of text that talks about the game I can understand and helps maintain and develop my reading abilities  so I had to set a subscription up to get March 22th's new edition.
That for me should include a copy of Scouted, a footballing piece of fiction about my footballing hero Roy of the Rovers!
Subscription link: Kickaround WSC Shop